Reverend Patrick Cowper was a real person. Sometimes his name was spelled Couper or another variation. He was a widower with eleven children. He appears to have had a hold over the people of Pittenweem that was extraordinary, even for a preacher of the time. Leonard Low believes the man was evil incarnate and I’m inclined to agree. In relation to the first release of the women from the Tolbooth, after the death of Thomas Brown and upon orders from Edinburgh, Low believes that Cowper felt cheated and was determined that the ‘witches’ should have been brought to trial and burned. Low further writes, ‘he [Patrick Cowper] was in complete control and would revel in his popularity and importance. He would destroy the women with God on his side.’

Rather than present Cowper as one-dimensionally Machiavellian (which would have been easy), I have tried to understand his psychology, emotional state and motivation, approaching it from the point of view of his religious beliefs, but without minimising the dreadful impact he had or the deeds to which he was party. Furthermore, he really did preach the morning following Janet’s gruesome death without making one reference to her or the brutality that had unfolded.

Not only did Peter Morton — also known as Patrick Morton, but in one account from the times I read, he was called Peter, so again, to avoid confusion and having three Patricks (Morton’s father was also Patrick), I opted to use that name — collapse and become ill after a water/sea-charm was left outside his door by Beatrix Laing, but his ‘affliction’ went on for months. He also manifested the symptoms described in the book and the reverend did indeed sit with him daily. The accused women were also paraded before Peter in his bedroom while his face was covered, and were subsequently imprisoned. I have, to a degree, imagined the influence of the reverend (there’s no doubt in my mind he coached the boy) on the young man and why.